Dr. Xiangyang Dong

The rapidly increasing demand in mobile electric technologies makes it necessary to develop energy storage systems with high energy efficiency. An alternative approach involves the development of multifunctional composite structures and materials to enable “massless” energy storage for electrically powered structural systems in order to achieve improvement of energy and power densities at a system level. Carbon fiber composites have recently gained much attention for their potential use in additive manufacturing. As a multifunctional material for lightweight structure, carbon fiber structural powered composites can potentially simultaneously carry mechanical loads while storing and harvesting energy. In this talk, a new scalable energy-efficient additive manufacturing technique is presented to fabricate a novel 3D structural powered composite architecture with each continuous carbon fiber working as a lithium-ion micro-battery cell. Mechanical and electrochemical characterization demonstrates the potentials of the additively manufactured composites in electrical energy storage and load bearing. A structural genome-based multi-scale analysis is implemented to study obtained composite properties. The multiscale numerical modeling of composite materials bridges first-principles calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and finite element methods. The results provide further guidance on design and fabrication of large-volume, high-performance carbon fiber structural powered composites through additive manufacturing.

Dr. Xiangyang Dong currently is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and technology (Missouri S&T). Dr. Dong’s research interests focus on advancing clean-energy technologies through sustainable design and manufacturing of multifunctional composites. Through taking interdisciplinary efforts by combining multi-scale, multi-physics modeling with experiments, he aims at a better understanding of the relationships between materials microstructure, multifunctional properties, and processing conditions. In particular, he is working on structural powered composite, a novel multifunctional material that can simultaneously provide high mechanical performance and energy storage capacity, i.e., structural energy storage. In the meantime, he is developing energy-efficient and scalable manufacturing techniques to advance clean-energy technologies, including structural energy storage. Prior to joining Missouri S&T, he received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Dong has authored or co-authored over 30 publications, including high-ranking peer-reviewed journals such as Materials & Design, Ceramics International, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Manufacturing Letters, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. He has also co-authored a chapter of the book Comprehensive Materials Processing Technology. His research projects are funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Education (ED), and major industries. He is a recipient of ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award.